Written by Megan Farcas, LMHC CMHIMP (Clinical Supervisor, Senior Clinician)
The other week I found myself in need of a new bath mat. I decided to search online for this purchase—as one does in pandemic times—and what should have been a 5 minute task turned into a 45 minute ordeal. I quickly found myself down a rabbit trail of questions I had never thought about in previous years of buying the occasional bath mat. Here’s how some of those thoughts went:
"Well this bath mat is cheaper but this more expensive bath mat has more suction cups…how many suction cups are enough suction cups? Should I get the one with big suction cups or little suction cups?…This one has 1,000 4.5 star reviews but this one has 6,000 4 star reviews. Which is better? This review says the mat had a strong plasticky smell…what kind of plastic is this made out of anyways? *searches Google for different types of plastic and toxicity levels*…should I even have a bath mat? Is it dangerous? Do I need to ventilate it before I use it?…"
As I began to catch myself in this spiral of thoughts, I was reminded of the book The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. In his book Schwartz argues that, rather than being helpful, having too many of choices can lead to feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed in making a decision. This "analysis paralysis" results from spending too much time analyzing all of the possible choices we are faced with which then leads us to feeling stuck, often taking a longer time to make a decision than needed.
Not only that but once we do finally make a decision we frequently then experience regret with the decision we made. Because we are faced with so many choices we begin to think that there must be a "perfect" choice to make, and so when we experience disappointment with our decision we assume we chose incorrectly. Studies show us that when we have less choices to pick from we often feel more satisfied in the final choice we make.
So how can we apply some of this information to our day to day life? Well, as a starting point you could try to identify ways to reduce the number of choices you make. Maybe it’s deciding to shop at the same grocery store and buy the same brands each week regardless of what ads you see that might tell you otherwise. Perhaps it is deciding to go to the restaurant with the smaller menu to choose from. Maybe you minimize your wardrobe a la Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs and wear the same type of clothing every day. In identifying small ways to reduce choice each day you might find an increase in your satisfaction of choice and a decrease in time spent making decisions.
Oh and yes, I did buy a bath mat :)